Crime, Deviance and Social Control

Our program in the sociology of Crime, Deviance, and Social Control (CDSC) has considerable strength in that it is one of the few programs in the nation that provides impressive sociological training in all three of the following areas: the etiology of crime, deviance and delinquency; the community context of crime, deviance and delinquency; and the societal responses to crime and deviance. These areas are united in the Department by its larger focus on how inequality (including race, gender, social class, and the intersections of these forms of inequality) shapes crime, deviance and social control efforts. CDSC faculty also is engaged in cross-cultural/international research with the majority of them actively conducting international research and/or having published works on the subject.

1) The Etiology of Crime, Deviance and Delinquency — emphasizes the study of causes of crime and delinquency, especially individual–level social processes, and the development and testing of theoretical models of crime and deviance. This area includes comparative studies of social processes in international settings, studies focusing on the way in which race, class, gender, and the intersections of these forms of inequality shape social-psychological processes and delinquency, and studies focused on common antecedents of delinquency and mental health problems.
Faculty with expertise or recent research activity in the area: De Coster, Hiday, Smith, Tittle, Zahn

2) The Structural Context of Crime — emphasizes social inequality, community social organization, schools, families, and peer groups as contexts in which high rates of crime, victimization, deviance, delinquency, violence, and suicide develop. This area includes international studies of social structure and homicide rates; studies of neighborhoods and crime rates; studies emphasizing the relationships between race, class, and the intersections of these forms of inequality in shaping residence patterns and crime rates; and studies that focus on the social mechanisms through which community-level structural characteristics influence crime and delinquency.
Faculty with expertise or recent research activity in the area: De Coster, Hiday, McCall, Smith, Tittle, Zahn

3) Crime, Deviance and Social Control — emphasizes the social construction and societal responses to crime and deviance. This includes the development and enforcement of laws and policies designed to control crime or deviance; the informal labeling of individuals and/or groups as deviant; the relationship between gender, race, social class; and the intersections of these forms of inequality on the formal and informal labeling processes, as well as the impact of societal responses, both formal and informal, on criminal, deviant, or stigmatized populations and communities.
Faculty with expertise or recent research activity in the area: De Coster, Hiday, Smith, Tittle

Graduate Student Awards

• Kristin Williams was awarded third place in the 2008 American Society of Criminology's Gene Carte Student Paper Award Competition.
• Jonathan Brauer was awarded first place in the 2007 American Society of Criminology's Gene Carte Student Paper Award Competition.

Recent Faculty/Graduate Student Collaborations

• Strom, Kevin, Tara Warner, Lisa Tichavsky, and Margaret A. Zahn. (under review, 2009) “Policing Girls: The Role of Domestic Violence Arrest Policies and Gender in Police Response to Child-Parent Assaults.” Revise and resubmit in progress for Crime and Delinquency.
• Zahn, Margaret A., Jacob Day, Sharon Mihalic, and Lisa Tichavsky. 2009. “Determining What Works for Girls in the Juvenile Justice System: A Summary of Evaluation Evidence.” Crime and Delinquency 55(2):266-293.
• Hiday, VA and PJ Burns.Forthcoming. “Mental Illness and the Criminal Justice System” in A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health, edited by TL Scheid and T Brown. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Tittle, Charles R., Ekaterina Botchovar and Olena Antonaccio. Forthcoming (2009). “General Strain Theory: Additional Evidence Using Cross-National Data.” Criminology 47.
• Tittle, Charles R. and Ekaterina Botchkovar. Forthcoming (2008). “The Scope of Reintegrative Shaming Theory: An Explanation of Contingencies using Russian data.” Social Science Research.
• Antonaccio, Olena and Charles R. Tittle. 2008. “Morality, Self-Control and Crime.” Criminology 46:479-510.
• Antonaccio, Olena and Charles R. Tittle. 2007. “A Cross-National Test of Bonger’s Theory of Criminality and Economic Conditions.” Criminology 45:925-958.
• De Coster, Stacy and Lisa Kort-Butler. 2006. “How General is General Strain Theory: Assessing Issues of Determinacy and Indeterminacy.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 43:1-29.
• Lattimore, T. Lorraine, Charles R. Tittle, and Harold G. Grasmick. 2006. “Childrearing, Self-Control, and Crime: Additional Evidence.” Sociological Inquiry 76:343-71.
• Tichavsky, Lisa, Katrina Bloch, Kylie Parrotta, and Margaret A. Zahn. 2006. “Racial Differences in Intimate Partner Homicide” In C. Gabrielle Salfati (Ed.) Connecting Research to Practice: New Directions in the Study of Homicide and Violence. Proceedings of the 2006 Meeting of the Homicide Research Working Group. Chicago, IL: Homicide Research Working Group.
• Warren, Patricia, Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, William R. Smith, Matthew Zingraff and Marcie Mason. 2006. “‘Driving While Black’: Bias Processes and Racial Disparity in Police Stops.” Criminology 44:709-738.2003.
• Moore, ME and VA Hiday.2006. “Mental Health Court Outcomes: A Comparison of Re-arrest and Re-arrest Severity between Mental Health Courtand Traditional Court Participants.”Law and Human Behavior 30:659-674.
• Engen, Rodney L. and Kylie Parrotta. 2005. “Disparity in Prosecutorial Decision Making in North Carolina : The Effects of Plea Type and Legal Representation.” Presented at the annual meetings of the North Carolina Sociological Association.
• McCall, Patricia L. and Karen F. Parker. 2005. “A Dynamic Model of Racial Competition, Racial Inequality and Interracial Violence.” Sociological Inquiry 75:273-93.
• Tittle, Charles R. and Ekaterina V. Botchkovar. 2005. “The Generality and Hegemony of Self-Control Theory: A Comparison of Russian and U.S. Adults.” Social Science Research 34:703-31.

Faculty

Professors: Bill Smith, Stacy DeCoster, Charles Tittle, Margaret Zahn, and Rodney Engen (Not Pictured: Patty McCall and Ginnie Aldige')

Virginia Aldige’ (Hiday)

Distinguished Professor
Ph.D., Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1973
355 1911 Bldg., 515-9007; email: ginnie_aldige@ncsu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Current Research: My research deals with the intersection of law and psychiatry, asking how and when the law is used to coerce mentally ill persons into treatment, what treatment is given, what needs are met, what are the outcomes, and what factors influence the behavior of mentally ill persons that brings legal intervention. Where I have concentrated on these questions in the area of civil commitment to both hospitals and community treatment in the past, I am currently examining them in a relatively new legal structure, the mental health court.

Selected Publications:

• Hiday, VA and PJ Burns.Forthcoming. “Mental Illness and the Criminal Justice System” in A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health, edited by TL Scheid and T Brown. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Hiday, VA and HW Wales.Forthcoming. “Criminalization and Mental Illness” in Applied Research and Evaluation” in Community Mental Health Services: A Current Update and Overview, edited by Evelyn Vingilis and Stephen Slate. Montreal: McGill-Queens.
• Hiday, VA. Forthcoming.“Community Systems Collide and Cooperate: The Case of the Legal and Mental Health Systems” in The Handbook of Health, Illness & Healing: Blueprint for the 21st Century, edited by Bernice A. Pescosolido, Jack K. Martin, Jane McLeod, and Anne Rogers. New York: Springer.
• Hiday, VA.2007. “Coercion in Mandated Community Treatment:Its Relativity and Effects,” BMC Psychiatry 7 (Suppl 1) S126 (19 December 2007).
• Wales, HW and VA Hiday.2006. “PLC or TLC: Is Outpatient Commitment the/an Answer?” International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 29:451-468.
• Moore, ME and VA Hiday.2006. “Mental Health Court Outcomes: A Comparison of Re-arrest and Re-arrest Severity between Mental Health Courtand Traditional Court Participants.”Law and Human Behavior 30:659-674.
  
  

Stacy DeCoster

Current Research: My research cross-cuts several areas within sociology, including criminology, medical sociology (mental health), social psychology, and inequality (with an emphasis on gender and on the intersectionality of race, class and gender). My publications focus on the following: explicating gender differences in illegal behaviors and mental health problems, specifying illegal behaviors and mental health problems as the outcomes of similar structural conditions and social-psychological processes, understanding the community context of adolescent violence, explaining race differences in violence within gender and gender differences in violence within race, and understanding female-dominated forms of victimization (i.e., sexual harassment).

Selected Publications:

• De Coster, Stacy, Karen Heimer, and Stacy Wittrock. 2006. “Neighborhood Disadvantage, Social Capital, Street Context, and Youth Violence.” Sociological Quarterly 47:723-53.
• De Coster, Stacy and Karen Heimer. 2006. “Crime at the Intersection: Gender, Race, and Violent Offending.” Pp. 138-156 in Peterson, Ruth, Lauren Krivo, and John Hagan (Eds). The Many Colors of Crime: Inequalities of Race, Ethnicity and Crime in America . New York : New York University Press.
• Heimer, Karen, Stacy De Coster, and Halime Unal. 2006. “Opening the Black Box: Understanding the Social Psychology of the Gender Gap in Delinquency.” Sociology of Crime, Law, and Deviance 7:109-35.
• De Coster, Stacy and Lisa Kort-Butler. 2006. “How General is General Strain Theory: Assessing Issues of Determinacy and Indeterminacy.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 43:1-29.
• De Coster, Stacy. 2005. “Delinquency and Depression: Gendered Responses to Gendered Stresses.” Sociological Perspectives 48:155-187.

Patricia L. McCall

Professor
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Texas, 1987
311 1911 Bldg, (919)515-9010; email: patty_mccall@ncsu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Current Research: My recent research efforts involve the use of sophisticated statistical techniques in the analyses of aggregate-level homicide and suicide rates to identify social and economic factors that explain variations in these phenomena across geographic locations and over time. For instance, my race-specific homicide analyses have identified the differential impact of economic and racial inequality on inter- and intra-racial homicide offending. Others areas of research include: modeling criminal careers, juvenile justice program effectiveness, projections of juvenile violent crime rates, and gender differences in offending rates.

Selected Publications:

• McCall, Patricia L., Karen F. Parker and John M. MacDonald. 2008. “The Dynamic Relationship between Social, Economic, and Political Factors and Homicide Rates from 1970 to 2000." Social Science Research 37(3):721-735.
• Nieuwbeerta, Paul, Patricia L. McCall, Henk Elffers, Karin Eising and Karin Wittebrood. 2008. ANeighborhood Characteristics and Individual Homicide Risks: Effects of Social Cohesion, Confidence in the Police, and Socioeconomic Disadvantage.@ Homicide Studies 12(1):90-116.
• McCall, Patricia L. and Charles R. Tittle. 2007. “Population Size and Suicide in U.S. Cities: A Static and Dynamic Exploration."Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior 37(5):553-564.
• McCall, Patricia L. and Paul Nieuwbeerta. 2007.  AStructural Covariates of Homicide: A Cross-National City Analysis."Homicide Studies 11(3):167-188.
• McCall, Patricia L. and Karen F. Parker. 2005. “A Dynamic Model of Racial Competition, Racial Inequality and Interracial Violence.” Sociological Inquiry 75(2):273-293.
  

William R. Smith

Associate Professor
Ph.D., Sociology, Rutgers, 1984
327 1911 Bldg, (919)515-9018; email: wr_smith@ncsu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Current Research: My research currently centers on three general themes: the relationship between educational experiences (including learning disabilities) and delinquency; methodological issues in prediction studies of crimes and their applications; and the study of the social ecology of crime. In recent years I have been interested in how methodological issues in social ecology relate to issues in studying racial profiling by police departments. Related works in progress center on the interrelationship between the physical environment and social characteristics as they impact crime rates, as well as the deployment of police.

Selected Publications:

• Warren, Patricia, Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, William R. Smith, Matthew Zingraff and Marcie Mason. 2006. “‘Driving While Black’: Bias Processes and Racial Disparity in Police Stops” Criminology 44:709-738.2003.
• Davison, Elizabeth and William R. Smith. 2003. “Exploring Accessibility Versus Opportunity Crime Factors.” Sociation Today, Vol. 1, No. 1. 1-10.
• Rice, Kennon and William R. Smith. 2002. “Testing Routine Activity and Social Disorganization Theory: Socio-Ecological Models of Automobile Theft. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. 29(3):Vol. 39(3):304-336.
• Davison, Elizabeth and William R. Smith. 2001. "An Introduction to GIS for the Use of Analyzing Crime Patterns: A Case Study." Journal of Crime and Justice 24:85-108.
• Smith, William R. , Marie Torstensson, and Kerstin Johansson. 2001 "Perceived Risk and Fear of Crime: Gender Differences in Contextual Sensitivity." International Review of Victimology. 8: 139-161.
  

Charles R. Tittle

Professor & Goodnight-Glaxo Wellcome Chair
Ph.D. in Sociology, University of Texas, Austin, 1965
340 1911 Bldg, (919)513-4319; email: charles_tittle@ncsu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Current Research: My research is aimed toward developing theories to explain criminal and deviant behavior, using integration of current theories and by elaborating and testing hypotheses from existing theories. One line of present research with that objective draws on common survey data collected in Russia , Greece , and the Ukraine . Another line of research elaborates the idea of self-control, developing the notion of “collective self-control.” Measures of collective self-control are then used to predict rates of homicide and suicide in cities in the United States as well as changes in those rates over a three-decade time period.

Selected Publications:

• Tittle, Charles R., Ekaterina Botchovar and Olena Antonaccio. Forthcoming 2009. “General Strain Theory: Additional Evidence Using Cross-National Data.” Criminology 47.
• Tittle, Charles R. and Ekaterina Botchkovar. Forthcoming 2008. “The Scope of Reintegrative Shaming Theory: An Explanation of Contingencies using Russian data.” Social Science Research.
• Tittle, Charles R., Lisa M. Broidy and Marc C. Gertz. 2008. “Strain, Crime, and Interactions.” Justice Quarterly 25:283-312.
• Antonaccio, Olena and Charles R. Tittle. 2008. “Morality, Self-Control and Crime.” Criminology 46:479-510.
• Welch, Michael R., Charles R. Tittle, Nicole Meidinger, Jennifer Yonkoski, and Harold G. Grasmick. 2008. “Social Integration, Self-Control, and Conformity.” Journal of Quantitative Criminology 24:73-92.
• Tittle, Charles R., Michael R. Welch and Harold G. Grasmick. 2008. “Self-Control, Political Ideology and Misbehavior: Unpacking the Effects of Conservative Identity.” Sociological Spectrum 28:4-35.
• Antonaccio, Olena and Charles R. Tittle. 2007. “A Cross-National Test of Bonger’s Theory of Criminality and Economic Conditions.” Criminology 45:925-958

Margaret Zahn

Professor
Ph.D., Sociology, Ohio State University, 1969
119 Winston Hall, (919) 515-5946; e-mail: margaret_zahn@ncsu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Current Research: My current research focuses on two general issues: the patterns and causes of violence; the causes of girls’ delinquency and the nature of effective programs for girls in the juvenile justice system. I presently lead a nationally funded effort called the Girls Study Group. This consortium of scholars and practitioners are evaluating and integrating current knowledge regarding delinquent girls. Further information regarding this work can be found at http://girlsstudygroup.rti.org

Selected Publications:

• Zahn, Margaret. The Delinquent Girl (book).  Temple University Press, 2009.
• Strom, Kevin, Tara Warner, Lisa Tichavsky, and Margaret A. Zahn. (under review, 2009) “Policing Girls: The Role of Domestic Violence Arrest Policies and Gender in Police Response to Child-Parent Assaults.” Revise and resubmit in progress for Crime and Delinquency.
• Zahn, Margaret A., Jacob Day, Sharon Mihalic, and Lisa Tichavsky. 2009. “Determining What Works for Girls in the Juvenile Justice System: A Summary of Evaluation Evidence.” Crime and Delinquency 55(2):266-293.
• Zahn, Margaret A., Darrell Steffensmeier, Barry C. Feld, Merry Morash, Meda Chesney-Lind, Jody Miller, Allison Ann Payne, Denise C. Gottfredson, Candace Kruttschnitt and Susan Brumbaugh. 2007. “Violence and Teenage Girls.” Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (web based bulletin series).
• Tichavsky, Lisa, Katrina Bloch, Kylie Parrotta, and Margaret A. Zahn. 2006. “Racial Differences in Intimate Partner Homicide” In C. Gabrielle Salfati (Ed.) Connecting Research to Practice: New Directions in the Study of Homicide and Violence. Proceedings of the 2006 Meeting of the Homicide Research Working Group. Chicago, IL: Homicide Research Working Group.
• Zahn, Margaret A. 2006. “The Girls Study Group: Its Creation and Achievements.” The Criminologist.
• Zahn, Margaret A., Henry H. Brownstein, and Shelly L. Jackson (Editors). 2004. Violence from Theory to Research. Newark : Anderson Publishing Co.
• Zahn, Margaret A. 2003. “Intimate Partner Homicide: A Review.” Journal of National Institute of Justice 250:2-3.
• Zahn, Margaret A. and Kevin Strom. 2003. “Terrorism and the Federal Social Science Research Agenda,” in Deflem, Mathieu (Ed). Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism: Criminological Perspectives. London : Elsevier Science Press.

Recent Ph.D. Graduates

• Olena Antonnacio, 2008, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Miami.
• Rachel E. Hagewen, 2007, Instructor, Department of Sociology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
• Lisa Kort-Butler, 2006, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Nebraska-Omaha.
• Marlee Moore Gurrera, 2006, Senior Research and Policy Associate, North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission, Raleigh.
• Lisa Briggs, 2006, Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Criminology, Western Carolina University.
• Ekaterina Botchkovar, 2005, Assistant Professor, College of Criminal Justice, Northeastern University, Boston.
• T. Lorraine Lattimore, 2005, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Oklahoma.
• Patricia Warren, 2005, Assistant Professor, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Florida.
• Kirk Miller, 2005, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Northern Illinois University.
• Kecia Johnson, 2003, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, State University of New York-Albany.
• Denise Bissler, 2003, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Randolph-Macon College.
• Kennon Rice, 2003, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Albright College .
• Sharon Frazee, 2003, Vice President, Health Informatics, CHD Meridian Healthcare.
• David Alston, 2002, Assistant Professor, Social Sciences, University of Maryland — Eastern Shore.
• Elizabeth Strugatz, 2001, Assistant Professor, Department of Criminal Justice and Sociology, Mount Olive College.

Graduate Courses

• Theories of Deviant Behavior (SOC 721): An introduction to the major theories of crime and deviance. The course traces the origins of theories of crime and deviance, examining the underlying assumptions of each theory, its major contributions to criminology, important empirical findings generated by research on the theory, and debates about the theory. Emphasis is placed on critical evaluation of theoretical perspectives and on assessing the extent to which recent theoretical developments in criminology move beyond traditional perspectives.
• Social Control (SOC 722): A survey of sociological theory and research on social control as an institutional response to deviant behavior. The course covers the functions, utilization, and effects of social control mechanisms, focusing primarily on formal social control. Emphasis is placed on critical evaluation of theoretical perspectives on social control and on the empirical findings related to these perspectives.
• Research in Crime and Delinquency (SOC 723): Major topics in the course include examination of conceptual problems and research issues and methods in the study of crime and deviance; assessment of current research on crime causation and deviance processes; examination of research on social control processes and agencies; and assessment of social action and evaluative research. Among the contemporary topics to be surveyed are: life course, criminal careers, population composition (race) and the southern culture of violence, social class and inequality, gender and feminist criminology, social ecology and social structure. Measurement issues and methodological problems in model specification also will be addressed. The emphasis in the course is on structural analyses of crime.
• Gender and Crime (SOC 791G): An overview of the sociological and criminological literatures on gender, crime, and criminal justice experiences. The course examines early approaches to understanding females and gender in the criminological literature. Early approaches simply apply male theories to the understanding of female behavior and experiences, rather than considering the unique ways in which gender affects crime and criminal justice experiences. The course also examines more recent feminist approaches that consider gender more centrally, taking into account the gender system. The focus of the course is on studying the major strands of feminist theory and research that have emerged in recent years and comparing these strands of theory and research with earlier work on gender, crime, and criminal justice.